Post-Roman Europe I: Italy and Southern Gaul From
Theodoric to the Lombards (488-600)

Summary

The remains of the Western Roman state had been ruled
since 476 by Odovacar,
as supposed viceroy in the West to Eastern Emperor Zeno. The latter
was uncomfortable with this arrangement, as Odovacar had presented
him with a fait accompli. At the same time, in
the mid 480s, Zeno was facing repeated invasions into Eastern Roman
lands by the Ostrogoths under Theodoric. After the uprising against
and defeat of the Huns in the 450s, the Ostrogoths had settled
on the Byzantine side of the Danube en masse through foederati agreements
by Byzantine Emperor Leo I. At his death in 474, they left their
reservations based on hospitalitas, criss-crossing Thrace
and the Balkans in search of food and in general warfare. By the
late 470s, Theodoric had gained prominence as an Ostrogothic leader.
Alternately supporting Leo II against rebels such as the general
Illus and the Germanic-roman officer Theodoric Strabo, and revolting
in search of food and better office in the Roman system, the Ostrogoths
spent the greater part of the 480s raiding up and down the Balkans.
At the same time, Odovacar in the West had heard of Zeno's plans
to oust him, so launched a preemptive strike into Pannonia, the
Western Balkans, hitting the Rugians hard. In 488, Zeno thus offered
Theodoric the position of Master of Soldiers in Italy, in return
for unseating Odovacar.

Tired of a seventeen-year trek through Byzantine lands,
Theodoric agreed. Passing through Pannonia, he acquired Rugian
and Gepid troops through 489, then moved into Northern Italy, attracting
Burgundians and Visigoths to the fight. He quickly reduced Odovacar
to Ravenna, which was put under siege until 493. Then, in a banquet
called to signal reconciliation, Theodoric and his servants murdered
their opponent.

Thus from 493, Theodoric established the first post-Roman kingdom
in the West. By the 510s his lands included all of Italy, stretching
past Milan in the north to the Alpine regions, where the kingdom
abutted the Franks as well as the Burgundians in the northwest.
Provence was also included in southeastern France, after Frankish
defeats of the Visigoths in the region. Finally, Pannonian and
Dalmatian lands along the Adriatic were incorporated into Ostrogothic
dominions. Legally, he presented himself to Italian Latins as the
Emperor Zeno's Master of Soldiers for the region, and maintained
as thoroughly as possible Roman urban and rural administration,
including the Senate. To the Germanics, however, he was a king.
In effect, the system was dualistic: Roman law, practice, religion
(Catholicism), taxes, and language for the indigenous Italians,
as opposed to Germanic kingship, tribal Ostrogothic (as well as
Rugian) law, Arianism, and military duties for the German newcomers,
who were outnumbered by native Italians. The relationship between
the two groups was based on the old hospitalitas model.
Roman landowners were required to provide about one-third of their
agricultural revenues. This "administrative dualism" was justified
according the Roman legal convention that the military-- in this
case the mostly Gothic Germans--was in legal, financial, and other
matters, accountable to a different system from that of civilians--the
natives in this case.

From 493 to the 520s, Theodoric made his rule popular
and administrated Italy better than any predecessor back to the
410s. Though Arian, he respected the Catholic Church, which was
currently in a sate of schism with Constantinople over doctrine.
His military force was equal to all challenges of the day, and
through marriage alliances with Vandals, Visigoths, and even Franks,
he was able to fend off territorial challenges. He also sponsored
building and restoration projects in Rome, Ravenna, and elsewhere,
even reestablishing the grain and wine dole for the urban masses,
after having turned Sicily into the grain producing area given
the Vandals' control over North Africa. Theodoric also attracted
capable Roman aristocrats as administrators, including Cassiodorus,
Boethius, and Symmachus, who were invested with proper Roman titles (and
offices of) Patrician, Consul, and Master of Offices, the chief civil
administrative offices in Roman parlance. Basically, the division
of labor, in Theodoric's mind was Goths as military and Italians
as civil, so that a Germano- Roman harmony could continue.

Providing comparative security and a semblance of Roman
continuity to the 510s, Theodoric's rule began to falter at this
time. A) The German/Goth elements of the system did not quite
fall into step with the spirit of their king's arrangements. For
example, when they traveled to Ravenna on a yearly basis to receive
financial bonuses as soldiers, Gothic units plundered native farms
and villages along the way. B) Byzantine Emperors were increasingly
displeased with what they considered Ostrogothic expansionism into the
East. Anastasia had disliked Ostrogothic occupation of Sirmium
in the Balkans in 504, as well as their 505 defeat of Bulgars along
the Morava river. Restricted in resources, the Greeks did launch
naval raids on Italian coasts in 508, and the Emperor recognized
the Frankish King Clovis with an honorary consulship in 507, as
at least a symbolic counterweight to Theodoric. In 518, Justin became
Byzantine Emperor. A native Latin speaker born the Balkans, he
was keen on reestablishing stronger ties with the Italian Roman
aristocracy as well as the Catholic Church. D) A divide of increasing
importance between Goths and Romans was based on religion. Though
Christian, Goths were adherents of Arianism, considered heretical
by the Western Catholic Church. At the beginning of Thoedoric's
rule, this was not too important. He respected Catholic churches,
and felt that Goths would remain Arian, as Italians would stay
Catholic. At this time, there were no Catholic candidates for
rule; Franks were still pagan, and the Eastern Emperor embraced
Monophysitism, so the Church in Constantinople was in schism with
that of Rome. By 518, the situation had changed. Between 496
and 506, Clovis had led his Franks into the Catholic form of Christianity,
and his comparative savagery did not outweigh his conversion's
significance in the eyes of Italy's Catholic clergy. Further, Justin
of Constantinople was totally Orthodox in his beliefs, opening
the way for Rome- Constantinople reconciliation and his reassertion
of influence in the West.

From the 520s, Theodoric felt much more insecure in his
rule, wedged in between a Catholic Barbarian to his north and an
Orthodox Emperor to his east. In 519 direct Papacy-Byzantine relations were
restored, and Justin elected to forbid Germans in his realm from
backsliding into Arianism after converting to Catholicism. Around
this time, Theodoric forbade Italians from bearing arms, and sent
Pope John I to the Byzantine capital to secure toleration for resident
Arians. Though he succeeded, the Pope was received too favorably
in Constantinople and showed too much devotion to Imperial revival
(he crowned Justin) for Theodoric's threatened tastes. Upon his
return in 526, John I was detained in Ravenna, dying in custody.
Certain Roman aristocrats, such as Boethius and Symmachus, were
judged to be in treasonous communication with Constantinople, and
were executed. And, while the new Pope, Felix IV (526-30) was
more Arian-tolerant and diplomatic in his relations with Theodoric,
the Roman clergy was quite pleased with the restored bond with
the East. Feeling ever more pressured and without a real Germano-Roman
melding, the King ordered Arian confiscation of all Catholic churches,
but died on the day of the decree.